'Witness' to Flotilla 'Murder' Admits She Was on Another Boat

U.S. Col. (Ret.) Ann Wright billed herself as a witness to 'murders' on Gaza boat, but has admitted she was 150 yards away. It was night time.

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Gil Ronen, 10/06/10 21:52 | updated: 22:00

Weapons from the Marmara

IDF Spokesman

U.S. Army Col. (Ret.) Ann Wright, on a speaking tour of the United States on behalf of radical pacifist women's group Code Pink, bills herself as an eyewitness to the IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara and what she termed the “murder” of “nine innocent civilians.” However, in an interview with Aaron Lerner of IMRA, she admits she did not actually see the clash between the IDF soldiers and the armed passengers on board the Mavi Marmara.

Lerner asks questions about what she saw, but does not remind her that the confrontation took place between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m., in the dark of night (IDF footage of the raid was carried out with night vision equipment) when she admits to being on another ship..

IPart of the recorded interview can be heard on this embedded player:

In a promotional e-mail on behalf of "Code Pink: Women for Peace," Wright says: “I just returned from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and started my speaking tour last night in NYC to share what I witnessed aboard the flotilla, and what people can do to end the siege.”

“I witnessed the Israeli attack that killed 9 persons and wounded 50 on the Gaza Flotilla... the murder of nine persons... Tragically, it took another example of disproportionate use of force by the Israeli military that resulted in the deaths of nine innocent civilians to force many governments of the world to call for the Israelis to end the siege of Gaza.”

In the interview with Lerner she admitted that she was not aboard the Mavi Marmara but on a different ship, the Challenger, which was about 150 yards distant from the Marmara.

In the interview, Lerner asks Wright if she has seen the video that shows the passengers preparing weapons for attacking the soldiers.

Lerner: “You haven't seen the YouTube that shows the rods that had been cut and prepared and the piles of hatchets that were ready?”

Wright: “No, I haven't. I'm still in the process of catching up with all the stuff that's out there.”

She also claims that “the video” (apparently the same video that she said she did not see – ed.) stops at a certain point and does not show that “the captain of the ship and the director of the IHH came out of the wheelhouse and told the guys that were on top 'stop beating these soldiers up.'”

Lerner: Col. Wright I just want to make sure again – so you actually were on a different boat and did not witness the attack firsthand.

Wright: That's correct.

Lerner: So your witnessing is based on the information that you are getting from the other folks who were there.

Wright: My witness will be specifically what happened on our ship, the Challenger. And then I can comment on what happened in the very first three or four minutes as the Israeli commandos were trying to board the ship. We saw that from the stern of the ship. But after that that's when my witnessing from my own eyes of what happened on that ship would end.